Sunday, December 23, 2012

My favorite Zombie Lie of the housing collapse is back again, Broke Ass Black People Caused The Recession. Every six months or so we get another iteration of this idiocy that centers around the Community Reinvestment Act, which because of "racial quotas" forced banks to make subprime loans to unqualified brown people, which collapsed the housing sector and the economy. No surprise, it's Investor's Business Daily again with this lie.

Democrats and the media insist the Community Reinvestment Act, the
anti-redlining law beefed up by President Clinton, had nothing to do
with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession.

But a new study by the respected National Bureau of Economic Research
finds, "Yes, it did. We find that adherence to that act led to riskier
lending by banks."

Added NBER: "There is a clear pattern of increased defaults for loans
made by these banks in quarters around the (CRA) exam. Moreover, the
effects are larger for loans made within CRA tracts," or predominantly
low-income and minority areas."

Once again, the mortgage brokers that made nearly all of the subprime loans that went bad were MORTGAGE BROKERS and NOT BANKS. Because they WERE NOT BANKS, they were NOT SUBJECT TO THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT AT ALL.

This "study" doesn't prove anything, other than Investor's Business Daily is the NewsMax of the financial world.

Gun enthusiasts thronged
to shows around the country on Saturday to buy assault weapons they
fear will soon be outlawed after a massacre of school children
in Connecticut prompted calls for tighter controls on firearms.

Reuters reporters went to gun shows in Pennsylvania, Missouri and Texas,
and found long lines to get in the door, crowds around the dealer
booths, a rush to buy assault weapons even at higher prices and some
dealers selling out.

The busiest table at the R.K. Gun & Knife show at an exposition center near the Kansas City, Missouri airport was offering assault weapons near the entrance.

West Plains, Missouri dealer
Keith's Guns sold out of about 20 AR-15 style assault rifles in a little
over an hour, owner Keith Gray said.

In a radio interview on Thursday with Albany’s WGDJ-AM,
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said that he plans to work with state
legislators next month to submit a proposal for new gun-control laws; in
particular, Cuomo said, “our focus is assault weapons,” because current
state laws regulating the weapons “have more holes that Swiss cheese.”

Cuomo continued, “Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to
the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your
gun but permit it.”

Boom. The NRA is going to be using Cuomo's comments for years and the gun lobby will keep getting richer and richer and buy off more lawmakers. The NRA's response as the nation's largest firearms manufacturer lobbyist group to the Newtown massacre could not have worked out any better for them, frankly.

So glad politicians on "our side" are happy to do all the lifting for them.

So depressingly expected that I haven't written about it, but this week details of a lawsuit versus the Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge in Louisville's 4th Street Live district became public. Ian Boudreau has the deets:

The suit, filed in Jefferson County court by Andre Mulligan, alleges
that he and his brother approached the Maker’s Mark Bourbon House and
Lounge management in August this year to secure reservations for an
event scheduled for Aug. 18. According to Mulligan’s suit, the
restaurant management “demanded to know the ratio of ‘black people’ to
‘white people’” in the party, and then refused to grant a reservation
when Mulligan explained that everyone attending the party would be
black.

When the Mulligans and their party showed up anyway on Aug. 18, the complaint says the 4th
Street Live security personnel barred them from entry into the downtown
area, which covers about two city blocks (the Baltimore-based Cordish
Operating Ventures, which runs 4th Street Live, is also named in the complaint).

Living here in Kentucky, I've had friends of both races tell me 4th Street Live at night is not very friendly for groups of black folk. People don't like to be reminded it seems that what few black folk live here are in the urban areas of Louisville and Lexington. It's been a long time problem at 4th Street Live, and that's why I've only been there once two years ago (and during the day.) Overpriced tourist trap area anyway, but the vibe I got there definitely made me not want to go back.

Which was the point, I guess. Everyone acts surprised that this kind of thing still exists in 2013, but why should we be? As Ian points out, we elected arguably the most racist senator in the country in Rand "The Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional" Paul. What did you expect from Kentucky?

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With Republicans controlling the House and Senate and President Obama coming to the end of his second term in the White House, there's still plenty of Stupid to fight on all sides with a crumbling global economy imperiling the world, two seemingly endless wars, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there still coming from both political parties, when we need solutions.

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